‘That’s one of the things that “queer” can refer to: the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning…’ – Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Queer Art(ists) Now Presented by And What? Queer Arts Festival and Pilot Press

This eclectic new exhibition located in the large, spacious vault of the old Hackney archives in Haggerston features over 50 artists, performers and makers and offers an insight into the breadth and politics of queer art practice today.

Together with a series of events, the exhibition offers a focused view of the practices that have formed and continue to shape contemporary queer art, including works by Linder, Prem Sahib, Rottingdean Bazaar, Holly Johnson, Princess Julia, Keith Vaughan, Jeffrey Hinton, John Booth, Urara Tsuchiya, David Hoyle, Paul Chisholm and graduates of the Goldsmiths MFA.

Over 40 artists out of over 200 applications were selected by our panel, Andrew Ellerby (And What? Director), Olivia Laing (Writer: The Lonely City, Frieze magazine), Evan Ifekoya (Artist) and Richard Dodwell (Pilot Press) to be included in a salon-style exhibition that will take place at Archive Gallery, part of the Mill Co. Project space in Haggerston, London, between Thursday 12th – Sunday 15th October.

The exhibition is run as a not-for-profit with prices of the work determined by the artist, with any profit from sales being returned directly to them.

In addition to the above, Queer Art(ists) Now will be raising money for survivors and local residents of Grenfell Tower, in support of future activism and a planned one-year on memorial project organised by local activist groups. Anyone involved in the exhibition has the option to donate their work to the cause and many of our invited artists have already very kindly agreed to do so.

This exhibition is for them, for us, and our collective struggle for a world without arms manufacturers, poverty, destruction and those who would wish to deny us our humanity and freedom.